K2 climbers froze to death hanging upside down on ropes - Telegraph Pakistan K2 climbers froze to death hanging upside down on ropes One of the mountaineers to survive the disastrous K2 expedition has described how he witnessed stranded climbers freezing to death hanging upside down on ropes as his own survival instinct kicked in to take him off the mountain. By Tom Peterkin 7:25AM BST 05 Aug 2008 Wilco Van Rooijen, a Dutch climber, said fatal errors while preparing for the final ascent contributed to the deaths of 11 climbers after they had spent four nights on the world's second highest mountain, which is considered a far more daunting challenge than Mount Everest. "There was a Korean guy hanging upside down," Mr Van Rooijen said. "There was a second Korean guy who held him with a rope, but he was also in shock and then a third guy was there also, and they were trying to survive. But I also had to survive." Mr Van Rooijen said he passed them on his descent. They declined his offer of help. He said that he was screaming instructions to people to work together, but they appeared consumed by self-preservation.

"They were thinking of my gas, my rope, whatever," he said. "Everybody was fighting for himself and I still do not understand why everybody was leaving each other. "People were running down but didn't know where to go, so a lot of people were lost on the mountain on the wrong side, wrong route, and then you have a big problem." Related Articles Avalanche on K-2 04 Aug 2008 According to Mr Van Rooijen, the seeds of the tragedy were sown when advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,250 feet peak, particularly in a notorious gully known as The Bottleneck where one false step can lead to death. "We were astonished. We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore," said Mr Van Rooijen, 40, who is suffering from frostbite. He said those who went on reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest climbers descended in darkness across The Bottleneck, about 1,148 feet below the summit, a huge serac, or column of ice, fell.

Rooijen said a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness. About 280 people have summited K2 since 1954, when it was first conquered by Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedell. Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them occurring during the descent. Among those who died in the worst tragedy on the mountain in 20 years was Gerard McDonnell, 34, described as one of Ireland's most experienced climbers. Achille Compagnoni, a Conqueror of K2, Dies at 94 - The New York Times The New York Times More Sports |Achille Compagnoni, a Conqueror of K2, Dies at 94 Search Continue reading the main story Photo Italian mountaineers Erich Abram, Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni during the ascent of the Breithorn in January 1954.

Credit Rue des Archives/The Granger Collection, New York ROME — Achille Compagnoni, one of the first two men to reach the summit of K2, the world’s second highest peak and among the most dangerous, died Wednesday in Aosta, in northwestern Italy. He was 94. His wife, Elda Compagnoni Mossini, confirmed his death. Mr. Compagnoni and his fellow climber Lino Lacedelli were part of an Italian team that conquered the mountain on July 31, 1954. K2 is in the border region of northern Pakistan and China. The expedition, of more than a dozen members, had been organized by the explorer and geologist Ardito Desio, who died in 2001. It “was one of the last acts of heroic mountaineering,” Reinhold Messner, a renowned Italian mountain climber, told the news agency ANSA this week. “Compagnoni,” Mr.

Messner added, “was a physically strong climber, with a lot of heart and big lungs.” Rising about 28,250 feet, K2 is surpassed in height only by Mount Everest (more than 29,000 feet), 800 miles to the southeast. But K2, towering like a steep pyramid in the Karakoram range, is known as a more treacherous mountain to scale. Dozens of climbers have died on its harrowing, often near-vertical slopes, many on the way down. Last August, 11 climbers were killed in one of the worst disasters in mountain-climbing history. The name K2 was a preliminary designation given to the peak in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in the 19th century. The name stuck, but mountain climbers have also called K2 the Savage Mountain; locally it is known as Chogori, variously translated as king of mountains or magnificent mountain. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Italians’ moment of glory came when competition to conquer the Himalayas was fierce, said Agostino Da Polenza of the Everest-K2-CNR Committee, a mountain research group in Italy.

Less than a year earlier, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay had become the first to reach the summit of Everest. The K2 ascent became a source of national pride; the climbers were decorated by both the Italian and the Pakistani governments. “The Italians managed to do it first,” Mr. Da Polenza said, “and as the country was just coming out of the war, this conquest became a symbol of rebirth and hope.” Mr. Campagnoni was born on Sept. 26, 1914, in Santa Caterina Valfurva, a mountainous area of Lombardy. “As a young boy he dreamed of being a guide, of exploring the mountains,” his wife said. “His passion was stoked because he lived in these places.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy He served in the Alpine corps of the Italian military and won several cross-country ski championships. After World War II, he moved to Cervinia, where he built a home and worked as a ski instructor and an alpine guide before being called by Mr. Desio to climb K2.

He also wrote two books on his K2 experience, published in 1958 and 2004. The climb was also recounted last year by Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver in “Fallen Giants: A History of Himalayan Mountaineering from the Age of Empire to the Age of Extremes.” The authors wrote how the expedition had been shadowed by resentments and even litigation. On the night before the final ascent, the authors said, a third climber, Walter Bonatti, the youngest in the expedition, accompanied by a porter, carried two oxygen sets up to the expedition’s high camp. But Mr. Bonatti later said that he could not find Mr. Compagnoni and Mr. Lacedelli’s tent, and he accused the men of purposely pitching the tent higher than the agreed-upon site in order to stop Mr. Bonatti from muscling in on their summit attempt. Mr. Bonatti and the porter, named Mahdi, were forced to spend a terrifying night outside in the cold before descending early the next morning, leaving Mr. Compagnoni and Mr. Lacedelli to retrieve the oxygen sets and ascend alone to the summit, according to the book. Later, back in Italy, Mr.

Compagnoni accused Mr. Bonatti of siphoning off oxygen from the sets in order to undermine the climb, but the accusations were thrown out in court. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Nobody comes out of this looking good,” Mr. Isserman said in an interview on Thursday. Mr. Compagnoni had two sons with his first wife, who died in 1979. One son died in 1973 and the other, Giordano, survives him, along with Ms. Compagnoni Mossini. Later in life, Mr. Compagnoni ran a hotel in Cervinia. “He had a small museum in the house of which he was extremely proud,” Ms. Compagnoni Mossini said. “He kept his K2 memorabilia jealously.” He continued to climb, but nothing, she said, ever compared “to the best ascent he ever did.” Correction: May 18, 2009 An obituary on Friday about the mountain climber Achille Compagnoni, one of the first two men to reach the summit of K2, referred incorrectly to Aosta, where he died. It is in northwestern Italy, not northeastern Italy.

Correction: December 9, 2009 A picture caption on May 15 with an obituary about the mountain climber Achille Compagnoni, one of the first two men to reach the summit of K2, the world’s second-highest peak, misstated the location and date of the image. It was taken during an ascent of the Breithorn in January 1954, not during the ascent of K2 that July. The agency that supplied the photograph corrected the mistake shortly after publication; this correction was delayed by an editing lapse. Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York. A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B10 of the New York edition with the headline: Achille Compagnoni, a Conqueror of K2, Dies at 94. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Climbing K2: Porters’ high - The Express Tribune The Express Tribune Share Tweet Email A mountaineer during the 2004 expedition up to the K2. PHOTOS: DWIRE (PAKISTAN) Climbing K2 is somewhat akin to a fatal attraction that many mountaineers cannot resist.

The world’s second-highest peak, feared as the ‘Savage Mountain,’ was first conquered on July 31, 1954, by Italian mountaineers Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli with the help of their porter, Amir Mahdi, from Hunza. Sixty years later, on June 14, 2014, history repeated itself with a little help from good fate. Eight high-altitude porters from Gilgit-Baltistan, hoping to take their career to the next level, set off on the first all-Pakistani expedition to the K2 summit — this time as mountaineers. The team of mountaineers at K2 basecamp on July 23, 2014. PHOTO: DWIRE (PAKISTAN) “I saw undeterred courage and a determination on their faces,” said Agostino Da Polenza, world-famed Italian mountaineer and president of the Everest-K2-Committee for Natural Resources (Ev-K2-CNR), while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

When the men of burden, Muhammad Taqi, Hassan Jan, Muhammad Sadiq, Ghulam Mehdi, Ali Durani, Ali Rozi, Muhammad Hassan and Rehmat Ullah Baig, first shook hands with the Italian last year at the Broad Peak basecamp and expressed their desire to climb the K2 as mountaineers and not porters, “Their aspiration came as a surprise” to him. Be he immediately sensed a blazing trail of passion and purpose, “And I promised to find [them] funds and technical assistance, if they [would agree] to go through intensive training to prepare themselves to put their feet on the peak of K2 where I had been in 1983.” Mountaineers stuck in their tents at the K2 basecamp during the heavy snowfall and windstorm. PHOTO COURTESY: DWIRE/EV-K2-CNR The Italians have had an everlasting love for the K2. They have been associated with the mountain and the Karakoram since 1909, sharing an equal responsibility for its conservation and facilitating mainstream climbing.

Polenza first scaled the K2 from the north side in 1983 and has since been the team leader of three successful expeditions to the K2, reportedly his ‘charmed’ mountain. Although lucky himself, Ploenza is wary of the perennial dangers of the sport and ensured that the porters went through extensive training before taking on the notorious K2. Just last year, the Pakistan Army recovered the bodies of mountaineers who were swallowed by a snow storm during their climb and the bodies of the three other climbers who were caught by an avalanche have yet to be found. At a height of over 8,000 metres, it is foolish to leave anything to chance. A clipping of the 1954 Italian expedition to the K2 in Domenica del Corriere, the Italian weekly newspaper which ran from 1899 to 1989. PHOTO: DWIRE (PAKISTAN) Although K2 has been thankfully kind to these mountaineers so far, except for a few delays in their journey caused by a snowfall, the climbers departed preparing for the worst. They set off in 11 jeeps loaded with equipment and essential climbing gear.

Two Italian experts, alpine guide Michele Cucchi and record setter for world speed skiing, Simone Origone have also been providing the climbers with technical support and guidance. “They [the climbers] are firm, they are determined, and I believe they would do it,” remarked Cucchi, encouragingly optimistic about the outcome of the expedition from the very beginning. The Pakistani mountaineers and the Italian mountaineering experts hoisting their respective flags at the K2 basecamp on June 22, 2014. PHOTO: DWIRE (PAKISTAN) Sharing Cucchi’s sentiment, Maurizio Gallo, Italian mountaineer and head of technical operations for the expedition, who has been stationed in the Karakoram for the past 25 years and has been part of several expeditions organised by the Ev-K2-CNR, added, “We [have learnt] a little bit about the K2 in the last 25 years. Its behaviour changes every next minute.

We have to hope for the best, and pray to nature to be kind and [to be] on our side.” To support the team, Polenza has also been at basecamp to closely monitor the mission along with Muhammad Taqi, the team leader for the expedition. “I wish the Gilgit-Baltistan government or the federal government [would have sponsored this expedition] with their own funds,” said Taqi. “Mountaineering is not only a risky sport, but resource intensive as well. What could we, the poor porters-turned mountaineers, expect from the governments that could not even fund the national games,” he added, extending his gratitude to Polenza and other Italian organisations for funding the expedition. Other members of the team were also grateful for the opportunity. “Climbing mountains is my bread and butter like many [others] in Gilgit-Baltitsan,” shared Hassan Jan, the leader of the climbers before setting off for the expedition.

“We wait for summers to earn our livelihood as porters… This summer we are lucky enough to climb the K2 as mountaineers,” he said proudly, adding that another 120 of his colleagues will be their porters this time, carrying their luggage to the first basecamp and some will continue on to the second basecamp as well. “Let’s see what nature [holds] for us, and how K2 [treats] us.” Italian mountaineers who participated in the 1954 expedition to K2. PHOTO: DWIRE (PAKISTAN) If all goes well, however, and according to plan, the climbers should emerge at the top. With the weight off their shoulders, they will finally experience a long overdue high. Munir Ahmed is a freelance journalist and communication consultant with the Ev-K2-CNR and Media Focal Person for the Pakistan K2 Expedition. Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, August 3rd, 2014.

Read full story National Geographic Magazine - NGM.com Published: September 2004The First Ascent of K2 K2: The Bitter Legacy K2 Update: With 11 feared dead after last weekend's tragedy, David Roberts and Ed Viesturs weigh in on what could have gone wrong. Read the story>> The first ascent of K2, arguably the deadliest mountain on Earth, had its 50th anniversary in 2004. In Italy, the half-century-old triumph of the countrymen who first stood atop the 28,250-foot summit remains a source of intense national pride. But simmering beneath the official glory is a legacy of backstabbing and betrayal that would ultimately drive one climber to change the course of mountaineering history forever. Text by David Roberts Map by Computer Terrain Mapping The exhausted climber scanned the frozen slope above him as darkness began to engulf the mountain. “Lino! Achille! Where are you?” he cried. The only answer was silence. It was July 30, 1954.

At the end of a marathon day of load-hauling, Walter Bonatti and his gritty companion, the Hunza porter Amir Mahdi, had reached an altitude of 26,575 feet on Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain. At that moment, the K2 summit—arguably the greatest mountaineering prize of the day—lay tantalizingly close to the grasp of a large Italian team. Just four years before, with the French first ascent of Nepal’s Annapurna in 1950, what would come to be called the golden age of Himalayan mountaineering had been launched. By the mid 1960s, all 14 of the world’s peaks that surpass the benchmark altitude of 8,000 meters (26,240 feet) would be climbed for the first time.

Achille Compagnoni, 94; among first to climb K2 - The Boston Globe Obituaries Achille Compagnoni, 94; among first to climb K2 Achille Compagnoni was one of two Italians who conquered the world's second-highest summit, the K2, on July 31, 1954. (AFP/ Getty Images/ File 1954) Associated Press / May 14, 2009 | Text size – + ROME - Italian climber Achille Compagnoni, a member of the first team to reach the summit of the world's second-highest peak, died yesterday. He was 94. Mr. Compagnoni died at the hospital in the northern Italian city of Aosta, where he had been treated for several weeks, said hospital spokesman Tiziano Trevisan. On July 31, 1954, Mr. Compagnoni and fellow Italian climber Lino Lacedelli become the first to the summit of Pakistan's K-2, which at 28,251 feet is the world's second-highest peak after Mount Everest.

The deed filled Italy with pride just as it was starting to emerge from the destruction of World War II. Since then, only about 280 people have reached K-2's summit. Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them occurring during the descent. K-2 is steeper and more dangerous than Everest and often has more intense weather. President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy called Mr. Compagnoni the "intrepid protagonist" of the historic 1954 expedition. Mr. Compagnoni was recognized with one of Italy's highest civilian awards, the medal of honor for civil valor, but was also involved in a 50-year battle with fellow climber Walter Bonatti over differing version of events during the expedition. Bonatti, who had a support role in the expedition, contends that Mr. Compagnoni and Lacedelli deliberately moved the location of Camp IX, the last before the summit, without informing him and a fellow team member who were carrying the oxygen for the final summit attempt. Those who side with Bonatti say that Mr.

Compagnoni and Lacedelli wanted to prevent Bonatti, the youngest member of the expedition and by many accounts the fittest one at that point, from attempting to reach the summit himself. Mr. Compagnoni said it had been decided to move the tent to a safer location. He accused Bonatti of using some of the oxygen that was meant for the summit. Mr. Compagnoni said that he and Lacedelli ran out of oxygen before reaching the summit. But the Italian Alpine Club, which last year confirmed Bonatti's version, said that Mr. Compagnoni and Lacedelli had oxygen all the way up to the summit. It recognized that Bonatti and his fellow support climber had a decisive and essential role in the success of the expedition. © Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

LOG IN TO COMMENT Three Climbers Rescued From K2; 11 Feared Dead | Fox News Three Climbers Rescued From K2; 11 Feared Dead Published August 04, 2008 Facebook 0 Twitter 0 Email Print ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A helicopter plucked two frostbitten Dutch climbers from K2 after an avalanche and exposure left at least 11 people presumed dead on the world's second-highest mountain. An Italian who was also stranded made his way down the slope with a rescue team after telling a colleague, "I am surely not going to give up now." Italian Marco Confortola, descended to 20,340 feet but bad weather forced officials to abort a helicopter rescue Monday, said Shahzad Qaiser, a top official at the tourism ministry. He was climbing down on foot, despite frostbite, assisted by a support team from a base camp. Another attempt was planned for Tuesday, Qaiser said. K2, which lies near Pakistan's northern border with China, is regarded by mountaineers as more challenging to conquer than Mount Everest, the world's highest peak.

K2 is steeper, rockier and more prone to sudden, severe weather. Agostino Da Polenza of Everest-K2-CNR, an Italy-based high-altitude scientific research group, also spoke to Confortola on Monday. "I never gave up in my life, I am surely not going to give up now," Da Polenza quoted the climber as saying on his group's Web site. One of the men rescued Monday, Wilco Van Rooijen, blamed mistakes in preparation for the final ascent — not just the avalanche — for one of mountaineering's worst disasters. "Everything was going well to Camp Four, and on summit attempt everything went wrong," Van Rooijen told The Associated Press by phone from a military hospital, where he was being treated for frostbitten toes. Van Rooijen said several expeditions waited through July for good weather to scale K2 and decided to go for the summit when winds dropped on Friday. In all, about two dozen climbers made the ascent, officials said.

But Van Rooijen said advance climbers laid ropes in some of the wrong places on the 28,250-foot peak, including in a treacherous gully known as as "The Bottleneck." "We were astonished. We had to move it. That took of course, many, many hours. Some turned back because they did not trust it anymore," said Van Rooijen, 40. He said those who went on reached the summit just before nightfall. As the fastest climbers descended in darkness across The Bottleneck, about 1,148 feet below the summit, a huge serac, or column of ice, fell. Rooijen said a Norwegian climber and two Nepalese sherpas were swept away. His own team was split up in the darkness. The Ministry of Tourism released a list of 11 climbers believed dead: three South Koreans, two Nepalis, two Pakistanis and mountaineers from France, Ireland, Serbia and Norway. At least two fell on their way up the mountain, before the avalanche.

About 280 people have summited K2 since 1954, when it was first conquered by Italians Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedell. Dozens of deaths have been recorded since 1939, most of them occurring during the descent. Advertisement Lino Lacedelli - Telegraph Sport Obituaries Lino Lacedelli Lino Lacedelli, the Italian mountaineer, who died on November 20 aged 83, was the first man to conquer K2, the world's second-highest peak, a feat that generated national rejoicing in Italy but also unprecedented controversy. The Italian team that conquered K2 (1954). Standing, from left: Achille Compagnoni, Ugo Angelino, Dr Gino Pagani, Mario Fantin, Ardito Desio, Erich Abram, Gino Solda, Lino Lacedelli, Walter Bonatti, Sergio Viotto, Pino Gallotti.

Front: Ubaldo Rey, Cirillo Photo: THE GRANGER COLLECTION 6:03PM GMT 20 Nov 2009 Lino Lacedelli obituary | Environment | The Guardian Lino Lacedelli obituary Climber who conquered K2 during the controversial Italian expedition of 1954 From left, the mountaineers Erich Abram, Lino Lacedelli et Achille Compagnoni during the ascent of K2 in the Himalayas, 21 July 1954 Photograph: Rue des Archives/AGIP Share on Messenger Close At dusk on 31 July 1954, the Italian mountaineer Lino Lacedelli, who has died aged 83, was standing on the summit of K2 in the Himalayas, remonstrating with his climbing partner Achille Compagnoni . The pair had just made the first ascent of a peak considered even more difficult and dangerous than Everest. But, after an exhausting ordeal, Campagnoni was close to the limit of his endurance. He preferred, he told Lacedelli, to spend the night on the summit and descend in the morning.

Knowing this meant certain death, Lacedelli threatened his companion with his ice axe and warned him that he would get a whack if he did not start descending immediately. So the two men began the slow process of picking their way down the world's second-highest mountain in darkness, stumbling frequently and sliding short distances, suffering frostbite – Lacedelli lost the top of his left thumb – but surviving. They made it back to their team's top camp at 11pm, where their companions were waiting to help them down. Back in postwar Italy, a crowd of 40,000 greeted the climbers as national heroes at Genoa. The newspaper Corriere della Sera described the ascent as "the best news for Italians for many years". It gave humiliated Italy a lift, and the nation was grateful. The climbers were given an audience with Pope Pius XII and eventually, in 2005, President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi awarded them the Italian Order of Merit. But the K2 expedition had not been a happy one. The smiling faces masked deep divisions and controversies, which would remain hidden in the afterglow of a glorious victory.

When they resurfaced, Lacedelli would find himself at the centre of a bitter argument that brought his role into question until, on the 50th anniversary of the climb, he published an account of the expedition that laid most of the ghosts to rest. Lacedelli was born in the mountain town of Cortina d'Ampezzo in the Dolomites, northern Italy, and, from a young age, he became obsessed with climbing and mountaineering. Escaping the attention of his father, he once followed a local guide and his client on to the Torre Grande of the Cinque Torri peaks, earning himself a reproach from the guide and a piece of chocolate from the client. His father, waiting at the mountain's base, was furious, but the course of Lacedelli's life was set. Shortly before the war, a group of Cortina climbers had formed a club called the Scoiattoli – or "Squirrels" – and wearing the club's famous red sweater, emblazoned with a white squirrel, became an ambition for young mountaineers in the district. One of them, Luigi "Bibi" Ghedina, saw Lacedelli's potential and took him under his wing.

The pair repeated many of the hardest routes in the Dolomites, as well as Walter Bonatti's route on the Grand Capucin above Chamonix, far from their home territory. The latter climb was done in just 18 hours and without a bivouac, attesting to the speed of Ghedina and Lacedelli. They also found new routes, including an elegant line up the south-west face of Cima Scotoni in the Dolomites, rated as being in the magical "sixth grade", the upper limit of that period. This success ensured that both men were serious contenders for the K2 team selected for the 1954 climb, but Ghedina was ruled out by injury and so Lacedelli travelled to Pakistan without his regular partner. Despite that, his friends in Cortina felt confident that if anyone could make it to the summit of K2, it would be Lacedelli. Strong – his firm handshake was legendary – capable and determined, he possessed a good humour and warmth that made him a great team player. A few weeks before his death, he told an Italian journalist: "What counted for us was the group. It's thanks to everyone that we succeeded.

I've said so in the past and will continue to do so for ever." But team spirit was in short supply as the attempt on K2 reached its climax. The expedition's leader was a geographer called Ardito Desio, a logistical genius but someone with little sympathy for climbers and their problems. After the death of a popular team-mate, Mario Puchoz, from altitude sickness, an agonising process witnessed by Lacedelli, Desio showed little sensitivity in driving the team on. Lacedelli saw their renewed effort as a memorial to his fellow climber. But ambition got in the way of team cohesion. Named as the summit pair by Desio, Lacedelli and Compagnoni relied on the rising star of Italian alpinism, Walter Bonatti, to bring vital oxygen supplies to their top camp. But Compagnoni suspected that Bonatti had summit ambitions of his own and would stay with them, weakening their chances. So instead of placing their last bivouac at the agreed spot, Compagnoni told Lacedelli they would camp higher up the slope. On the evening before summit day, Bonatti arrived with a Pakistani porter called Mahdi carrying oxygen bottles, but could not find the tent.

Only when Lacedelli and Compagnoni shone their torches did he realise where they were, now too far above for him to reach that night. Lacedelli assumed that they would descend, but Bonatti and Mahdi, too weak to continue, were forced to spend the night in the open, the local man, in inferior boots, suffering terrible frostbite and, later, the amputation of half of each foot. At dawn, they retreated and, soon after, Compagnoni and Lacedelli descended to collect the vital oxygen needed for their final ascent. On the climb's 10th anniversary, Compagnoni accused Bonatti of siphoning off some of the oxygen during the night, jeopardising the expedition's chances of success. Bonatti flatly denied the charge, sued for libel and won, but by then, the Italian climbing establishment had turned its back on him. Lacedelli remained silent, although he never hid his admiration for Bonatti. But, 50 years after the first ascent, he published his own account of the climb in K2: The Price of Conquest, one that tallied more closely with Bonatti's version than Compagnoni's.

At the age of 78, and against doctor's orders, he returned to K2 base, a tough trek for a man half his age, to pay tribute to Puchoz and the rest of the team. His nephew, Mario, also a mountain guide, went with him. After K2, Lacedelli continued to do difficult new rock climbs in the Dolomites and explore the mountains around his home. He opened a skiing and climbing shop and worked as a mountain guide, remaining a dedicated member of the Scoiattoli for the rest of his life. He is survived by his wife and four children. • Lino Lacedelli, mountaineer and guide, born 4 December 1925; died 20 November 2009 K2: To ascend and to come back POLISH HIMALAISTS ATTACK K2 IN WINTER To ascend and to come back They call K2 the Mountain of Mountains. Some due to its beauty, others because of the terror it causes among mountaineers. On December 16, the Netia K2 Polish Winter Expedition will set out for K2.

It is going to be a historical event - no-one has ever tried spending the winter on K2's northern slopes (8611 m) - the Earth's second highest summit. The expedition is headed by Krzysztof Wielicki, one of the most outstanding mountaineers of the world. The base is to be established on New Year's Eve, the struggle to reach the summit may last until the end of February. "Rzeczpospolita" correspondent MONIKA ROGOZINSKA will be accompanying the expedition. K2 lies in the Karakorum mountain range that is parallel to the Himalayas, on the border of China and Pakistan. Its form reminds one of a pyramid, equally hard to conquer from all sides. Swept with winds, it grows 600 m ahead of the nest of four 8000ers. The history of conquering K2, long and dramatic, remains in the shadow of Mount Everest, which is higher then the former by merely 237 m.

Though the names of Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first people to set foot on the highest summit, are widely known, only mountain lovers know about Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli. Those two Italians conquered in the summer of 1954 the then maiden K2, for which they had paid a high price - their chilblained fingers had to be amputated. Polish successes and tragedies Statistics say a lot about the difficulties concerning that mountain. Up until today, less than 200 people have reached the summit of K2. Only two mountaineers did it twice (the summit of Mount Everest was reached 1500 times in total by around 900 people). Every seventh person descending from K2 does not reach the base. This might be the reason why a mountaineer's rank is determined not by climbing Mount Everest, but K2. Among the five women who set foot on its summit, Wanda Rutkiewicz was the first. Alison Hargreaves was the last. In a poll announced by the world's largest mountain newspaper, the Internet portal to emerge the alpinists of the century, it was they who have won.

A Briton, the only woman not to use oxygen from a cylinder there, did not survive the descent - the wind tore her off the slope and threw her into a precipice. Our alpinists have many achievements on this mountain in the summer season. The decision not to use the help of height porters, taken in the year 1976 by the expedition headed by Janusz Kurczaba, was a sensation. On their new route, the unaided alpinist team missed the victory by a mere 200 m. Poles have marked or finished four of the nine routes leading to the summit, among them the legendary one, called by Reinhold Messner the Magic Line, as well as the one daringly marked by Jerzy Kukuczka and Tadeusz Piotrowski on the southern slope, called the Polish route since then, for which they paid a horrible price - the death of Piotrowski. On this mountain, we have also lost other wonderful mountaineers: Halina Kruger-Syrokomska and Wojciech Wroza. At the foot of K2 lies the buried body of Dobroslawa Miodowicz-Wolf.

Those tragedies were intermixed with beautiful moments. It was here that Piotr Pustelnik earned the Fair Play Award of the Polish Olympics Committee. We were first Watching the struggle for K2 made Jerzy Kukuczka express an opinion, which had moved the international mountaineering circle. He compared Western and Polish expedition to cars: the former, being luxurious, turn out to be useful on good roads, while the latter, old and less showy, joggle along persistently also on bumpy roads. Presently, many himalaists consider this division to be true for mountaineers from the West and from the East. Apart from the first Poles, Mount Everest was conquered in winter only by Japanese, Koreans and Sherpas from Nepal. Today it seems that the mountaineers ready to take any risk come from Russia and the countries that came into being after the break-up of the Soviet Union. A winter expedition is the bumpiest road imaginable. It is not without reason that the American Space Agency NASA, preparing a manned expedition to Mars, tests the endurance of men on the slopes of the highest mountains and in the Antarctica, with extreme conditions and a landscape similar to the one on Mars.

In winter, winds are raging around 8000ers. Climbing at that time is comparable to cosmic alpinism. Nonetheless, seven of the fourteen 8000ers were conquered in winter. Polish expeditions achieved that goal first in the eighties. Krzysztof Wielicki, head of the expedition Today, there a few alpinists - in Poland as well as abroad - ready to risk that much, when the chance of success is so uncertain. The goal of the beginning expedition is to conquer K2 in winter through the Northern Pillar, on a four kilometers high ridge growing out of the northern slope - one of the most dangerous precipices of the globe. Krzysztof Wielicki reached the summit in the summer of 1996. It was his fourth expedition to K2. In a poll carried out by 52-year-old Wielicki was deemed one of the two most outstanding, living alpinists of the century. The verdict stressed that he still takes up difficult challenges and does not rest on his laurels. Although he could. He is the fifth man to win the Crown of the Himalayas - fourteen 8000ers.

He often did it pioneer style. Three of them, including Mount Everest, he climbed in winter as the first. He climbed on Lhotse alone on the night of New Year's Eve, in a corset he was wearing after injuring his spine in the mountains. He "ran up" Broad Peak alone in one day (which was the first climb on an 8000er within a day). Witness to his lone climb on Nanga Parbat, one of the biggest slopes of the world, were only Pakistani shepherds, watching his feat from distant meadows. Wielicki knows K2 from all sides. He participated in four expeditions to this mountain. Only during the last one, in the summer of 1996, his perseverance was rewarded - he reached the summit through the Northern Pillar with two Italian alpinists. Pictures from the summit make a ghastly impression on everyone knowing how dangerous this mountain is - they were already made in complete darkness. After a bivouac not far from the top, the descent changed into a rescuing mission of the extremely emaciated Italian, which had a happy end.

"Next year, we have the fiftieth anniversary of conquering Mount Everest, which is to be a grand celebration - says Wielicki. - It's a good time to set the crossbar higher in the highest mountains". 14 heroes Over 30 people are going to participate in the expedition. The hard core will consist of 14 alpinists: Krzysztof Wielicki - head of the expedition, Roman Mazik - physician, Bogdan Jankowski - communications, Maciej Pawlikowski, Jacek Berbeka, Jerzy Natkanski, Dariusz Zaluski, Jan Szulc, Marcin Kaczkan, Piotr Morawski, Gia Tortladze (Georgia), Denis Urubko (Kazakhstan), Wasilij Piwcow (Kazakhstan), Ilias Thukvatullin (Uzbekistan). They will be joined by five Pakistani porters and several young Polish alpinists (supporting group), needed to transport the equipment on the glacier to the base which will be two days away from its front, two Nepal cooks and a Chinese liaison officer with his personal cook.

Accompanied by TV reporters A novelty and an interesting experiment will be the participation of a Polish Television crew consisting of six people who want to make transmissions to a specially organized studio of Channel 1 in Warsaw. The members of the TV crew will not be climbing, however. Almost every alpinist has his own digital camera. Disks with the saved video signal will be carried down to the base, edited in the tent, which will turn into the highest located TV studio in the world, and then sent to Poland by means of a satellite phone. The expedition's third media sponsor - apart from "Rzeczpospolita" and TVP - will be the Internet portal Onet.pl. On December 16, the expedition will fly to the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek (known in the times of the USSR as Frunze). From there, the expedition will go by trucks to China, and then through Kashgar, a bazaar-like city located on the Silk Route, to the settlement of Mazdar, where they will change to camels. The travel to the front of the K2 glacier will last six days.

Further than that, to a base at 5100 m, all the equipment has to be carried on the backs. Andrzej Zawada, originator of winter himalaism, during his last expedition (Nanga Parbat 1997/98) Zawada's Team This expedition was Andrzej Zawada's greatest dream. As originator of winter himalaism and boss of the first victorious winter expedition to Mount Everest, he headed at the turn of 1987/88 the only international expedition until know, whose purpose was to conquer K2 in winter from its northern, Pakistani side. Three years ago, he started preparing the present expedition. In February 2000, he was to go to a reconnaissance - it was necessary to check whether it was possible to reach the foot of K2 from the north at all in that time of year. The day before the trip, physicists discovered a dangerous illness consuming him. Instead of to China, Zawada went to a hospital. Even when he was in a serious condition, he was making plans of conquering the Himalayas in winter. He made the reconnaissance happen, however - somebody else went.

It seemed that an operation could save Andrzej's life. He died 6 months later. On All Souls' Day, I visited Andrzej's grave at the Warsaw Powazki Cemetery. Somebody put a white piece of paper torn out from a notebook behind the plate. It said, "Rest in peace there. We're going to K2. Your team". Monika Rogozinska Seven 8000ers conquered in winter From among the fourteen 8000ers located in Nepal, Pakistan and Tibet, half have been conquered in winter so far. All first winter climbs were made by Polish alpinists. 17.02.1980 r. MOUNT EVEREST (8848 m) - Leszek Cichy and Krzysztof Wielicki reach the summit; the Polish national expedition was headed by Andrzej Zawada. 12.01.1984 r.

MANASLU (8156 m) - Maciej Berbeka and Ryszard Gajewski; while installing handlines, an avalanche gust kills Stanislaw Jaworski; the expedition of the Zakopianski Klub Wysokogorski was headed by Lech Korniszewski. 21.01.1985 r. DHAULAGIRI (8167 m) - Andrzej Czok and Jerzy Kukuczka; the expedition of the Gliwicki Klub Wysokogorski was headed by Adam Bilczewski. 12.02.1985 r. CHO OYU (8153 m) - Maciej Berbeka and Maciej Pawlikowski, three days later, Zygmunt Andrzej Heinrich and Jerzy Kukuczka reach the summit; the Polish-Canadian expedition was headed by Andrzej Zawada. 11.01.1986 r.

KANGCHENJUNGA (8598 m) - Jerzy Kukuczka and Krzysztof Wielicki; Andrzej Czok dies in camp III, probably as a result of a pulmonary edema, the conqueror of Dhaulagira (in winter) and Mount Everest, Lhotse and Makalu in spring/fall seasons; the expedition of the Gliwicki Klub Wysokogorski was headed by Andrzej Machnik. 3.02.1987 r. ANNAPURNA (8091 m) - Artur Hajzer and Jerzy Kukuczka (head of the expedition). 31.12. 1988 r. LHOTSE (8511 m) - Krzysztof Wielicki reached the summit alone on a night of New Year's Eve; the Belgian-Polish expedition was headed by Andrzej Zawada. All those summits are located in Nepal.

8000ers unconquered in winter Nepal: Makalu (8481) Tibet: Shisha Pangma (8027) Pakistan: K2 (8611 m), Gasherbrum I (8068 m) and Gasherbrum II (8035 m), Broad Peak (8047 m), Nanga Parbat (8125 m) 2002.11.09

Question: What was the nationality of the team that first conquered K2 in 1954?
Answer: Italian